There are two nearly subconscious reasons for optimism. The entire country got fed up with the debt ceiling debacle...both sides being intransigent, looking childish, and creating a disastrous outcome. The entire political atmosphere is caustic. Do the players and owners want to fit into that public perception? People are weary. If a solution were to be found, it would make everyone look really good in this discouraging, can't-agree-on-anything (even the night of the President's address to the nation) environment.
The NFL found a way to settle; that sets a recent precedent in sports.
I hae some kind of weird faith in Derek Fisher. He's not the ideologue that Hunter is. Smarter and more political too. At this stage in his career, he could set himself up as a problem solver, much to his advantage for future employment.
Maybe it's the rose colored glasses, but I've got a feeling things might be worked out in time to save the season...the entire season (maybe with a shortened camp, I don't know).

I"ll try to reign it in. Guess I was dreaming. Thanks for the wake-up call.
But before I open my eyes to the harsh light, I do think the way both sides agreed to keep the attendance small and private for the last meeting (and it seems they've been successful at that), bodes well for some kind of progress. They were together for quite a long while. They had to be getting somewhere.
There's a political side to it too. If the season doesn't open on time, or at least reasonably so, it becomes another stone in the shoe for the Obama administration, and I don't think most the players want that. That's not a tie-breaker, but it is a consideration.

Ha. Not what I meant.
I meant that if there is hope that can sway you, then that must say something significant about that hope.
I still think the players vs. owner thing is a distraction . . . owners have to unite before all that gets done from where I sit, at least if the reports of losses are accurate AND those are operating losses.